Incredible story: how a refugee cat from Ukraine got to New York

The story of this cat is worthy of a film adaptation. The cat was a pet in Ukraine and ended up on the street because of the war. He miraculously survived on Severnaya Saltovka, the largest residential area of ​​Kharkov, which is now in ruins, reports Objective.

Once upon a time there was a cat

A cat lived in one of the cities of Ukraine. He was a pet and ended up on the street because of the war. We do not know where, how and with whom he lived, but at the end of the winter of 2022, the cat's fun life ended. Shaggy miraculously survived on Severnaya Saltovka (the center of Kharkov). Miraculously, because the largest bedroom community in Europe is now in ruins.

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Fortune turned to the cat on the right side and the red-and-white handsome man ended up in the Kharkov city shelter for homeless animals. The cat was examined by veterinarians. He turned out to be healthy, slightly emaciated, but there was no threat to his life. And so began life in the shelter of the future resident of the United States.

Marina from New York

In the spring of 2022, the shelter was forced to ask for help from all over the world. One of those who decided to help the shelter survive was Marina. The former Ukrainian emigrated to the United States a long time ago.

Marina looked for sponsors in the USA, transferred money to the shelter's charity account, and even sent a special wheelchair for a dog with a spinal injury.

Looking through the pet profiles on the site, Marina saw a cat from Severnaya Saltovka with an orange heart on its nose. Marina immediately wrote that she was ready to pay all the expenses for sending the fluffy from the Kharkov shelter to New York.

Whatever it costs me

Have you ever shipped something to the US? It's probably easier to build a hadron collider in the backyard of a suburban area than to fill out all the documentation for importing a cat into the United States. And do not forget about the international veterinary passport, rabies vaccination, which is regulated in the USA, rabies antibody titers and much more. Oh yes, there is a war in the country and planes do not fly.

Having collected some of the necessary documents, the volunteers decided to bring the cat to Poland. And then from Poland by plane to send to New York.

Fire, rockets, cat and Lviv

On October 9, the cat Martin, accompanied by a volunteer, arrived in Poland. She has already come here for humanitarian aid, taken out animals and brought the necessary for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The trip was quite normal, if not for one "but". On October 10, there was a large-scale rocket attack on Ukraine, at that very moment the train with the cat on board was only a few hours away from Lviv. But because of the shelling near the train, the locomotive broke out, it burned out completely, although 3 fire engines extinguished it. All cars were unhooked from the burning locomotive and returned back to the nearest station. And there they already picked up another locomotive and the movement to Lviv continued. After the shelling, there was no electricity in many cities of Ukraine, and Lviv is no exception. At the entrance to the city the train stood for 3 hours. As a result, in general, due to shelling and fire, the train was delayed for 5 hours.

Pan Martin, or How a Kharkov cat almost became a Pole

Further the path of the cat lay to Przemysl. And this train was delayed, although only for 4 hours. Therefore, instead of the promised 20:30, the cat arrived in Poland closer to one in the morning. Martin got to Krakow, where he won the hearts of people. None of those present at the station remained indifferent to him! Volunteers, police, passengers and station staff could not pass by such a handsome man. Many offered to take him home directly from the station. At the station, Martin made friends with other animals that left their home with their owners. For Martin, a hostel was booked in an Italian-Spanish fund, where the cat and Elizabeth were allowed to live for free.

American Dream

On October 14 at 5 am, a homeless cat from Kharkov officially became a passenger and was handed over to a representative of the air carrier company.

Martin flew on two planes: the first - from Krakow to Warsaw, the second - from Warsaw to New York. And after taking off from the capital of Poland, after 1 hours and 9 minutes, he was with his new mistress. Marina has 30 more cats in New York. Therefore, she was very worried about how they would get along together.

Her cat accepted Martin immediately, and the cat took several days to get used to the new family member. But the most important thing is that Martin very quickly found a common language with Marina's children. Fate is sometimes very unpredictable. We hope Martin has already realized that his American Dream has already come true.

Martin's journey in photos can be seen below ⇓